To the editor: For the past four years, I have been interacting with the administrators and faculty at Jesse Mae Monroe Elementary in my capacity as chairman of the Nocha White American Legion Post 503 Auxiliary Americanism committee.

What an uplifting experience for my committee members and myself. We were welcomed with open arms when we described the patriotic programs we would like to bring to the students.

Most recently, we were invited to have a Veterans Day program in an assembly setting at the school.

To the editor: How did Obama win the election? Here is the way I see it. First, President Bush’s rating with the people was so low until he almost destroyed the Republican Party.

Next, he invaded Iraq and Afghanistan by telling the people things that turned out to be false, killing more than 200,000 people and an unknown number of our troops. Finally, going to war with two countries that had never bothered us that had nothing to do with the attack on 9/11.

To the editor: In a training program at 9 a.m. Friday, Nov. 14, a HAZMAT team was dispatched to a facility near Southport after some people were stopped with suspicious materials the FBI felt might include nerve agents.

Eight sealed bottles attached to a timing device were located, along with various containers with hazardous materials and guns. HAZMAT determined there were three highly lethal agents, including cyanide.

To the editor: Thank you Mr. Jesse A. Bryant for your kind words in your letter to the editor in the Beacon during our time of grief for the loss of our father, the Rev. Norman Bellamy.

He touched the lives of many people during his 90 years here on earth.

He was a carpenter. He built the house we grew up in, two more he lived in and a house for me I still live in today, all with a blueprint only in his mind. He sawed boards, nailed nails, laid brick and tacked shingles.

He helped build schools and churches along with his father, R. E. Bellamy Sr. He built